When Western firms left after the invasion, Wildberries filled the shelves with goods from China, Turkey and the UAE. Its model concentrated thousands of sellers' inventory in a handful of vast buildings — and that concentration is what Kyiv is exploiting.

Ukraine has carried out one of its largest aerial assaults on Russia of the war so far, setting warehouses on fire and killing at least six people.

While Kyiv argues the retailer helps supply Russia's military, Moscow maintains it serves only civilian purposes.